Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche sat down Thursday with a group of Jeffrey Epstein's accusers at Justice Department headquarters, a hastily arranged meeting after Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., warned he would not vote to advance Blanche's nomination for attorney general without it.

As of Friday, Blanche's confirmation remains unresolved and hinges on a single Republican vote.

Blanche spent about an hour with the accusers, according to The Associated Press, telling reporters afterward that he encouraged the group to bring any evidence of other crimes to the FBI but could not guarantee further prosecutions.

The Department of Justice later described the session as a "productive, initial discussion" attended by senior DOJ officials, FBI agents, and victim services representatives, according to a statement provided to CBS News.

The meeting followed a public ultimatum from Tillis delivered earlier Thursday, the second day of Blanche's confirmation hearing.

"I expect that meeting to occur before I vote to vote out of this committee, and I'm trying to get to yes. But this is a very important part of getting to yes," Tillis said, telling ABC News he was inclined to support Blanche but not without the meeting.

An earlier attempt to convene the meeting on Capitol Hill collapsed when the survivors did not appear.

The arithmetic is tight.

Republicans held an 11-10 edge on the Senate Judiciary Committee before Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., died over the weekend, leaving a GOP vacancy and, according to CBS News and CNBC, a panel in which even one Republican defection could stall the nomination.

Tillis and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, both remain publicly undecided, with each citing concerns about a $1.8 billion DOJ "anti-weaponization" fund that Blanche has called dead but has not disavowed in court filings.

The reception from survivors was harsh.

Dani Bensky, who testified against the nomination hours before the meeting, said Blanche treated the encounter as "a mere 'check-the-box' exercise intended to secure votes for his confirmation," according to a statement reported by CNBC.

Annie Farmer, a key witness at Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell's 2021 trial, told ABC News she found Blanche "abrasive, condescending, and intentionally noncommittal."

Blanche himself acknowledged the friction, telling reporters, "It wasn't all cordial."

Tillis, however, praised the meeting in a post on X, writing that Blanche did "what all his predecessors over the last two decades never did. I appreciate his willingness to directly engage and listen to them."

He stopped short of committing his vote.

The committee is expected to take up the nomination at its next markup in roughly two weeks, giving both sides time to press Tillis and Cornyn further before the panel decides whether to send Blanche to the full Senate.